One Post Posters

[elkhartjim]

I'm just wondering if there are any forum statistics on posters that post a question one time and never come back. Brett, do you have this information available?

I only ask because often times someone will post looking for information and then some of us spend time researching for an answer, post the answer but never hear from the OP as to whether it helped, etc. I see myself as getting less likely to spend much time looking for information which may or may not help when its a first time poster and that's not fair. We were all a first time poster.

Sorry for the rant but it is a pet peeve of mine. I hope everyone has a safe but fun July 4th celebration.

[obedb]

Often felt the same way Jim. Maybe the question is answered satisfactorily, but a thank you would be nice.

[BillAdams]

Come on, who cares.  Don't we all come to this forum dolling in hopes that some newbie will post a question that only we know the answer to?  It's always disappointing when the OP does not respond but even so you, like me, will be back the next day hoping that someone new is going to post a question that only you know the answer to!

[tbutler]

Just because we never hear back from the person who posed the question doesn't mean that the various answers are not helpful.  I learn a great deal about motor homes and RV'ing from just reading posts even though I haven't posed the question.  Sometimes I file the information away for future use.  At other times I simply remember that there was some question posted related to some idea or information and will go search out old posts to use as a reference in a comment I post. 

I really am not concerned about being the only person who knows an answer, simply want to contribute to a discussion with something relevant.  Sometimes I try to offer a different viewpoint in a discussion.  At other times I try to expand the discussion to include points that might be related to similar questions.

There are many out there who are reading these questions and posts who never comment or participate in any way.  That is also OK.  I'm in it for the fun, the give and take, and learning more.  In the process I hope to help make FMCA a useful resource for fellow motor home travelers.

[wolfe10]

Well said, Tom.

It is great to see first time posters come back, but as Tom said, many, many read but are too ?shy? to post.  But, they still get a lot out of answers.

 Brett

[manholt]

Jim.  Sometimes I feel like you do, but it's mainly when we get one that does come and ask more questions and then disappears, never to be heard from again!  I do appreciate the once that come back and post an end result. Not for us, but for others benefit, that as Tom and Brett said....just come on and read/learn!   We all (most of us), still run into things, that we need help with...if nothing else but jog the memory!  Bill Adams had quite a Inverter/transfer switch issue...You do remember that?  I'm sure Brett has issues also, but he makes phone calls!

Thru the years, this Forum has been an invaluable tool...I have made friends with a vast amount of knowledge that I tap into periodically.  They tap into me also.  Most of them I have met.  Still have some to go.  Looking forward to that.

Thank you all.  Have a safe and wonderful 4th!

[elkhartjim]

I appreciate the responses.

[wayne77590]

It would be nice if the first time poster would come back and state if any of the information was helpful or not.

Nice to know when someone "fixes" something, and it goes without saying that many others will learn from the posts.

[joanesh]

Hello, all! 

Just a newbie perspective here (one who might be thought of as a one-time poster).

Back in late April, I posted two threads (I think, as I recall), one as an introductory topic (we had just joined FMCA and I was introducing myself and my husband, our new RV, etc), and one as a newbie asking for tips/advice you'd give first-timers ("if there was one thing you would advise....") as we were taking our new RV out for our maiden solo voyage.  Many of you replied.

Your replies to my inquiry (about advice to newbies) were terrific and thoroughly appreciated, and I went through your suggestions at that time and thanked you each (in the topic discussion itself) for your input and let you know how we planned to (or had already) applied your wise counsel.

I had every intention of following up after our first solo trip with Howee (our 2017 Bounder 36H) to let you know how it went.  I did. And I tried.

Oh, how I tried and tried and tried again, losing attempted post after attempted post or finding error messages about forum maintenance when I'd return to try even again.  I can't tell you how many lengthy posts I lost telling you all about how well our first solo trip went. I really wanted to let you know (we had a blast and it all went extremely well).

I kept trying to post (I even tried removing my computer's browser and reinstalling, I tried alternate browsers, but I just kept getting error messages, or my post would "freeze" when I tried to enter it, and then I'd lost the post all together.  There was clearly an FMCA forum issue.

After two weeks, I just gave up (and, because I was new to the forums, I assumed that the issues were typical for the FMCA forum itself, and that perhaps the FMCA forum was going to be too glitchy to get involved with -- too frustrating and unpredictable). So I stopped trying. And I started lurking in other forums (but not engaging there like I had hoped to here).

Imagine my delight when (now, a couple months later) I logged in today and found the forums up and running smoothly (I actually could log in, *gasp*, and I could actually could read the forums!)   A pleasant surprise.

And then I see this topic about one-time posters.  Ruh-roh. I have to wonder if my not reporting after our first solo adventure (not for lack of trying, but because of forum issues) was interpreted as a user-mindset or as a lack of appreciation (it certainly wasn't that in my case).

So, to those of you who may have felt *used* by my original inquiries, that was never my intent. I'm so sorry if I made any of you feel that way. I really wanted to continue to interact with you (love your banter, btw), and I was excited to share our first adventure with you. But forum server glitches became a huge deterrent (for the two weeks I tried), so I quit trying.

I do hope the forum glitches are over with now (gosh, I so hope this post actually goes through).  Maybe forum glitch isn't the norm here?

In any case, back to topic at hand,  if that happened to me, I wonder if any of the one-post-users you're wondering about had similar forum-posting frustrations with the server to keep them from replying. Just as I did. 

Just a thought (I'm a hopeless believer in giving the benefit of the doubt).

Again, my apologies. And you have my gratitude for your help getting us started on the right foot!  We've had some adventures since then... ai yi yi... some wonderful, some not so wonderful, but we're loving our MH! 

All the best to you, and thank you again,

Joan

 

 

[elkhartjim]

Not at all, Joan. I'm not sure what your issues were with signing in and posting but I'm glad you've been able to finally get past the gremlins.

Since I was the original poster of this thread, I'll simply say its the poster that post one time and many of us spend time responded and they never sign back in. Those were the posters I was referring to. As an example, a posters posts "I'm stuck in a campground because I can't get my jacks up". First thing I do is start asking questions like what kind of jacks do you have, manufacturer, make, model and year of your coach. Others may post shot in the dark solutions while days go by and the original poster never comes back. Assumption is they were able to get'er done. 

Again, my original post was not aimed at you or for that matter it was not intended for anyone in particular, just the one post poster. In my opinion, the best part of this forum is the learning from each other. If the poster never comes back with that worked or that didn't work, how do any of us learn what works and what doesn't.

I'm glad you maiden trip was a success and I hope we get to hear from you often.

[jleamont]

Joan, welcome back!! I remember answering questions, I had so many answers, detailed answers and I responded to each question, long response, then POOF...it was gone. Glad you are back hope all is well!

[wayne77590]

Hi Joan, and welcome back.

When I have run into that problem, and only seldom, I will open up Notepad or even an email and type my information into it. Then if things are bad I can copy and paste into the forum. If it doesn't get posted I can still copy and paste in a few more minutes to see if it takes.  It has only happened to me a couple times in the past 9 years, but it worked well copying and pasting.

Again, welcome back.

[kaypsmith]

Welcome back Joan, I think that several of us was somewhat frustrated with the forum at that time. The I.T. personnel with FMCA really had their hands full at that time, several things happened at that time to make matters worse, but due to their perseverance the forum has been running smoothly for a while now. My hats off to them for doing a somewhat thankless job, and to you for giving us another try. Come back often, and thanks to you for letting us know that our suggestions were helpful. 

 

[joanesh]

@elkhartjim:    Thank you for the assurance; I didn't really think you had anyone in mind in particular (especially me).  But your post did make me wonder if those that had so kindly welcomed me (us, my DH and I) and who had taken the time to provide advice and suggestions felt overlooked or taken advantage by my lack of reply.  I just wanted to assure them (if they read this) that it was technology (and not a lack of appreciation) that kept me from replying.  You're absolutely right, though, about not knowing if what folks take time to suggest is actually of any real help if there's no feedback. Feedback is hugely helpful. We all have so much we can learn.

@jleamont:  I still have your list of suggested campgrounds and the ideas you suggested when you PM'd me from when we were both encountering forum difficulty (I have them copied and saved to my RV file). I so appreciated your time and effort (and I remember how you spent so much time on the one reply only to have it disappear!).  But you persevered! Thank you so very much!

@wayne77590  I've just got to remember to use Notepad.  I forget.    But I have started just doing "select all" and "copy" my messages before I post them, just in case. I'm glad and encouraged to hear you haven't had many issues in the forums (gives me hope that I just happened to jump in at an unusual time for forum maintenance).

@kaypsmith :  So glad to hear the forums are running smoothly now.  I really feel for IT guys, professional and volunteer alike (but especially volunteers). Kudos to them for their diligence and hard work; we wouldn't have a forum without them!   I'm delighted to find things working again (and even more delighted to hear that maybe the bugs then were an anomaly and that there's hope for regularly functioning FMCA forums!).  I am glad to be back.

Thank you all for the welcome back!      Good to "see" everyone. 

I hope you've all had a summer filled with fun, wonder-filled adventures!

All the best to you,

Joan

 

(EDITED to add:  I have no idea why my fonts look funky and the one looks bolded...lol.... so sorry!)

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by joanesh
strange font

[trekker01]

I am one of the low posting members, but I do try to read often, and do make use of information I gain, helping others with similar problems in another group I spend most of my time administering.  Often (at least in my group) a newbie question gets asked leaving out information needed to properly respond, or asked in terms no one but the newbie understands, which generally requires having to ask questions of the poster in order to attempt to get them good information.  Sometimes multiple well meaning responses are given, with possible solutions, with each a distinct possibility, and the original poster either fails to ever advise the problem is resolved, or simply responds that it has been resolved, but no one knows which of the dozen or so answers was the key to the solution, and other owners who believe they have the same problem have to go through numerous possible solutions by trial and error to find out if they may solve their problem.  Always great to get feedback from the person that asked for the help, identifying what actually worked for them. 

I, for one, wish to thank every member here who  selflessly shares their hard gained knowledge with anyone asking for assistance.

Gary

 

 

[punxsyjumper]

Newbie here as well and yes, I ask a lot of newbie questions. The problem I'm having is notifications of responses. Not getting them at all. I click the green notification tab at the bottom but so far, I have never gotten one. Chris in IT is aware of it and working on it. It wasn't bad when I first came in here but now I have to remember all the places I've asked a question or made a comment to see if a reply is there. It's starting to hurt my little brain.

So, long story short, if I never responded when I should have, it's because I didn't see it and not bad manners. Loads of good info here and I do appreciate all of it. Thanks.

[kaypsmith]

Joan, I often have the same problem with the BOLD, if you look across the top of your edit page, the B appears, if gray around that B, your type will appear in bold letters. My computers have a tendency to always start out in bold, I have learned over time to just backspace over what is bold and click on the B to make sure that it is not gray, sometimes it is and sometimes it is not, so a second click has to happen to make it correct, I do not know why this happens but this is how I correct it. Happy Tales and trails, Kay